Medical care in Corpus Christi (West: insurance, home, live)

[utsci]

So over the last month there has been a bad respiratory bug going around at work. Some of us have been to urgent cares, etc, but I noticed that most people around here do not have a regular primary care doctor. Most of my co-workers don't go for regular check ups even though we have good medical insurance plans. My co-workers even sort of teased me recently when I went for my eye exam (I've worn glasses and contacts since I was 7 and have yearly eye exams), basically thought I was a hypochondriac when I asked them for suggestions on local eye doctors. I've also noticed that my co-workers do not use their dental benefits, but we'll focus on medical for this post.

I ended up going to an urgent care center for this bug and was less than impressed. Although I understand if it appears to be viral there's not much they can do (and they did humor me when I asked for a rapid strep test to rule out strep throat since that was my worst symptom) they really seemed happy just to give me a really brief "once over" and send me on my way, "that will be $35 please."

So, for those of you who have been here for a while...which of the urgent care centers would you go to (or not go to)? In a true emergency which hospital(s) do you consider the best and the worst? And if anyone has suggestions on primary care docs I'd like to hear them.

[Marlow]

I love my primary care doctor, Patricia Cantu, at Oso Urgent Care and Family Medicine. She's "strict" in that you have to call and ask if she's accepting patients, and then you have to go for a physical and blood work. After that, in order to keep being a patient, you have to have a check-up and blood work once a year. But she sees patients on a walk-in basis and takes plenty of time to talk to you about whatever it is that's going on. On the down side, she's the only doctor there and doesn't work after hours or on weekends.

I don't have any recent experience with any of the urgent care or emergency rooms here.

[utsci]

Really? No one here has ever been in themselves or at a hospital with friend/relative and have opinions? I just noticed that you guys have a lot of hospitals for a very small place and just wondering which are better than others. On the other hand, although you have a lot of hospitals, there aren't very many doctors in private practice it seems. So I will probably rely on urgent care centers for anything that comes up. ???

[Dr.Mcninja]

Memorial is the county shop. It is also the trauma center, and the training site for the emergency and family medicine residencies.
Shoreline is the stroke and heart center for Spohn. Bay Area is the heart center for HCA.
South and Bay Area deliver babies.

Your insurance should provide you with a list of doctors, but primary care is stretched pretty thin down here. You may have long waits to see them, and urgent cares are almost always better options for same day problems than emergency rooms (unless you're having an emergency).

[utsci]

Originally Posted by Dr.Mcninja

Memorial is the county shop. It is also the trauma center, and the training site for the emergency and family medicine residencies.
Shoreline is the stroke and heart center for Spohn. Bay Area is the heart center for HCA.
South and Bay Area deliver babies.

Your insurance should provide you with a list of doctors, but primary care is stretched pretty thin down here. You may have long waits to see them, and urgent cares are almost always better options for same day problems than emergency rooms (unless you're having an emergency).

Where I come from, the county shop is the last place you would want to go. But if Memorial is the local trauma and training hospital, is it the best place to go? I'm thinking of things like a serious illness beyond the scope of urgent care. One of my colleagues just had a concussion along with some other things at the same time, and I don't think she got the best care at the UC she went to.

We're not really in the need of heart care and babies at this stage so... where would you drag yourself for a general medical emergency if urgent care is not the best resource? Most of us at TAMUCC have BCBS PPO insurance plans. I will look at the plan document to see what hospitals are in network too.

[Dr.Mcninja]

For serious illness, you still need to pick which organ system is ill. Memorial is the trauma center, so if you had a broken bone, it's the best place to be. If you have a heart attack, then you shouldn't go there. Bay Area and Shoreline have cath labs for heart attacks, and Shoreline is the stroke center.
If you've got pneumonia, meningitis, or some other infection, Memorial is probably better simply because it's the training center, not because of any other measurable factor.
Urgent Cares are simply a conduit to remove money from people. For most things people to go UC for, they don't need to see anybody, and for things where something is really wrong, the UC will either misdiagnose it or just refer it to the place you should have gone to in the first place. Yet they still charge you.

[utsci]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check to see if Memorial is in my network. I just wish there was an option between no care at all and the emergency room. There seems to be a lack of primary care here. I come from a very rural area in a Western Mountain state and we had awesome primary and specialty care compared to CC. And we only had two hospitals in the nearest city that is 10x the population of CC. I'm guessing that the culture here is to not seek medical care unless you are just so sick you have to go to ER. Kinda the expensive way around the block IMHO.
In the meanwhile I'll probably depend on the student health center when I can. They really don't like to treat staff because they are so overwhelmed, especially now with flu season. Six weeks ago, before the flu hit and we had a sore throat thing going around they were already swamped. I can't imagine what it's going to be when I get back this week. But, had my flu shot, wash my hands frequently, and keep to myself with lots of field and lab work. Hopefully the flu won't find out that I exist!
I felt my colleague received some sub-par care for the concussion (don't know which hospital she went to), they sent her home with limited instructions (I saw the paperwork when I went to check on her and ended up staying for two days), and she basically toughed it out until she felt better. Honestly, I'm pretty stoic but I don't think she should have been sent home alone. And my experience for a sore throat that I had for 10 days before I sought treatment was less than stellar. I had to "ask" for a rapid strep. I suspect they may had some experience with many cases, but I didn't go in there demanding antibiotics. I just wanted to rule out strep after explaining that I had terrible problems with strep until a few years ago when a wise doctor insisted that I have my tonsils and adenoids removed.
Thanks Dr!

[Marlow]

Originally Posted by utsci

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check to see if Memorial is in my network. I just wish there was an option between no care at all and the emergency room. There seems to be a lack of primary care here. I come from a very rural area in a Western Mountain state and we had awesome primary and specialty care compared to CC. And we only had two hospitals in the nearest city that is 10x the population of CC. I'm guessing that the culture here is to not seek medical care unless you are just so sick you have to go to ER. Kinda the expensive way around the block IMHO.

There is an option--establishing yourself with a primary care physician. Are you not doing that because of insurance reasons?

[utsci]

I have a list of doctors but no info to go on. I'm not excited about seeing someone without a reference. I've tried asking colleagues and friends. It seems no one goes to a primary care doctor here. If they feel sick enough they just go to urgent care or the ER.
TAMUCC has good medical benefits with BCBS but no one seems to use it much. I was teased quite a bit when I had a routine annual eye exam even though I didn't need a change of prescription. At home we generally have annual exams for wellness with our pcp, eye exam, 2x/year dental cleanings. None of my colleagues do this. Some have never been to a dentist. And none of them have pcp's. Ya, they even teased me for taking my dog to a vet when we moved here to get heartworm meds. In the short itme I've been here I've known 3 dogs that died from heartworm because the owners don't give hwp. I've also noticed there is a serious problem with stray dogs and cats. And no one seems to neuter their pets either.
I will most likely only be in CC for two years so at this point I'm thinking it's not likely I will establish with a pcp. But my dog has a vet! Go figure.

[Marlow]

Like I said up thread, I have a great primary care doctor and happily recommend her to you.

CC does have a huge stray animal problem, but there are lots of animal lovers too. I'm sure you're not the only TAMUCC employee who takes good care of his pets.